Tabletop Simulator is a simulation game that simulates board and card games on a table.

Tabletop Simulator is a simulation game that allows you to play simulated board and card games. It was published and developed by a small company named Berserk Games. Is Tabletop Simulator an easy cash grab like many simulation games or something unique or special? Let's find out!

Story

Tabletop Simulator has absolutely no story. There isn't a single thing relating to story here. I believe that this is OK because the game has no need for a story.

Graphics

Tabletop Simulator looks great. It has a realistic artstyle and can look beautiful. The graphics may not be unique or innovative, but they work.
How Tabletop looks like.

Gameplay

Tabletop Simulator may not have any story or innovative graphics, but it shines with its gameplay. Tabletop opens up with a clean menu. From here, you can pick the modes. There's singleplayer, which allows you to mess around with the physics or board games or anything. There really isn't much else to this mode and really is only used for making board games (see next paragraph) and messing around. Next, there is multiplayer. Connecting online allows you to join other people and play with them. You can also set up your own room to play your own games in them. Playing online is a blast. Each player controls their own cursor and are allowed to interact with the objects. The admin can change what they can do or interact with. Setting up your own room doesn't require port forwarding or anything of that sort. You just click create and play! You can also play in a private room with friends. This is great if you want to play a friendly (or gruesome) board game with a friend who lives far away. The final mode is hotseat, which allows multiplayer with one computer. It's just singleplayer, but there are now turns and everyone is supposed to huddle around the computer like a real board game to play and take turns. This is great for playing games that you don't have with family or if you don't want to set up the entire game.
The layout of most games.

Tabletop Simulator would be a very boring and forgettable game if it wasn't for one thing: the Steam Workshop. The Steam Workshop allows players to create any board/card game of their wishing and upload it for others to play with. This means that you can develop your own board games without having to pay money and play them with friends! This also means that you can recreate famous board games! Thanks to the workshop, you can play a game of Sorry, UNO, Monopoly, or Dungeons and Dragons online! This means that this simulator basically has the potential to hold every board game in existence! That's crazy!

Making board games does require a bit of knowledge in scripting and a lot of time and effort, but there are many great tutorials made by Berserk Games that will greatly aid you in creating the game of your dreams!

Playing the actual games is a lot of fun. The physics are fairly realistic, which can make it feel like you're playing a real board/card game. There aren't any restrictions in what you can do. You can spawn in a game of chess and instead of playing it, you can throw the pieces around. You can add your owns rules to the game and the Simulator won't restrict you (unless an admin does). It's basically a simulator of a real life game! Heck, you can even flip the table, which is the most satisfying thing you can do. The game won't limit you on what you can and cannot do. There's also tools you can use to enhance gameplay, such as a ruler, a crayon, and a hand that flicks things. You can change the type of table or the background! You can do everything and more with these games! Pretty much, it's playing a board/card game in real life but with extras. If you feel overwhelmed with all of this, there's a tutorial that will teach you all that you need to know.

If you want to really embrace the life of Tabletop Simulator, you can hook up a VR set and play like you're in the game. I haven't got to try this, but it looks like a blast and I hope to try it soon.Controls

Tabletop Simulator controls mostly with the mouse. You control a cursor that can pick up, flick, draw, and more. You can pick up objects, rotate them, fling them, freeze them, and more! The controls are simplistic yet perfect, and they're fun to use. You can use the keyboard to use the voice chat in game, type, and do a couple of commands.

Music

There is little music in Tabletop Simulator. Besides the main menu, the music is pretty much non-existent. You can spawn music in though with mods from the Steam Workshop though.

Lasting Appeal

Tabletop Simulator will last you forever. It's every board and card game you can dream of in one game, and it's a tool for making games. It's a bargain for only $20. Even if you were to run out of games to download, there's DLC in the game, although it's only high quality board games. Either way, you'll be playing this game for a very long time!

Verdict

Pros+
Unlimited Board and Card games+
Tons of customizability+
Great replay value+
Online and local multiplayer+
Able to create your own games

Cons-
Almost no music-
Uninnovative Art Style

8

Presentation
Although the game looks great, the art style isn't very inspired and unique. Don't expect too much from graphics.

9

Gameplay
Tabletop SImulator is so much fun to play. Whether it's a civilized game of chess or a mayhem of throwing pieces at one another, it's always a blast to play with friends, strangers, yourself, or family!

10

Lasting Appeal
Tabletop Simulator will last you years and years to come. With it's unlimited amount of games to play, multiplayer, and an engine that allows YOU to build your own games, this game is endless!

9.8

out of 10

Overall(not an average)
Tabletop Simulator offers a great way to play Board and Card games with anyone while doing it in a simplistic yet fun way. Check out this game, it's a must have!

Hmm...don't take this the wrong way, but I strongly disagree with your review.

Like probably most customers, I got tabletop simulator because of the elevator pitch: "play every board game in history". Admitted: I misread that as "pirate every board game in history". Perhaps that was the case at one point, but somewhere down the line board game publishers either had their games removed or had them repackaged as paid DLC. that's obviously well within their right, but it's kind of sour if you purchase tabletop simulator in order to test out whether some board games would be worth purchasing.

The graphics...sorry, but to me everything is just butt ugly. The main menu, as well as most of the icons, seem like they're picked by a ten year old. The models of the things are okay-ish (it's not like you can actively screw up the looks of a domino tile or a card), but why does everything has to be 3D? I can see it being convenient for dungeon crawlers or other games that rely on lots of models, but quite some (if not the majority of) games would be best in a 2D environment. That way, navigating and positioning would be more intuitive, at least for the more classic games (domino, chess, ...). As it is, games with many components - I attempted pandemic before I gave up in frustration - are actually worse to set up than their real life counterparts.

...and I realise I'm dozing off in gameplay territory. I perceive the ability to do anything mostly as a curse. I understand that it'd be hard if not impossible to make sure that all rules of all games are enforced, but this just gives me too much freedom. To take chess as a clear example: I don't expect tabletop simulator to tell me whether I've done a good or bad move, but having no rule interference whatsoever has the same effect as not having rules to begin with. It's a remark made an it's an honest one: tabletop simulator isn't a game: it's a tool. And that distinction is a very important thing to remember. You can play a lot of games, but that doesn't make them easy or even endurable. If you don't know a certain game, there is at best a pdf linked somewhere. Allowing game builders to restrict the available options when playing a bit would actually be a GOOD thing (I mean...in pandemic, just turning over five cards and placing blocks on the field is a chore. The fact that there's a "flip the table" right available FOR NO REASON BUT THE LOLZ" doesn't help in that regard). But it's not there. More the contrary: I saved that pandemic game, but now I can't find a way to even resume it if I ever wanted to.

At least we agree on the music, but you kind of brush it off. To my knowledge, there's only track in the main menu, and to be honest: I've played wii shovelware with better records.

But for all my negativity, I will give the game props for one reason. One I'm surprised you only barely mention. True: you can create "the game of your dreams"...but let's be honest: you don't sell someone pen and paper with the mention "this is all you need to become the next William Shakespeare". What's far more interesting is that quite some actual professional board game developers have embraced tabletop simulators to build their next projects on. The game deserves some major props for that. Even today, board games come out with too little playtesting or a complete lack of understanding of what makes the game fun. Tabletop simulator allows for an audience (select or large) to test the waters and get instant feedback from around the world while the game is being made.

First of all, I wouldn't really consider Tabletop Simulator as a way to pirate board games. Playing board games in a video game will never, ever top playing board games in real life. People may live far away and if you'd want to play a game of "Sorry!" with them, they'd have to come all the way over to your home. Tabletop helps make board games accesible to all. Also, it provides online play for many board games that don't have it. Nothing can ever beat playing a board game in real life, I think of Tabletop Simulator as a fun take on board games.

Second, I don't think the graphics are ugly. They are decent and they work. We probably just have different tastes in how we like our games to look, but I wouldn't call the game ugly.

Tabletop Simulator is meant to be played without limits. In real life, you can technically play the board game the completely "wrong" way without punishment. You can toss around chess pieces in real life as you can in Tabletop. It's similar to Garry's Mod (which is my favorite game of all time), it's up to the player to make the rules. Even if this frustrates you, there are versions of games that are scripted so the board game will prevent you from screwing something up. Along with that, you can limit what everyone in the server can do. Also, there's a notepad that everyone in the group can see that can include rules (like a manual). Usually, there's a description in the addon for the game or in the notepad. I probably should have mentioned these in the review and I'll probably add it in. I do agree that it kinda is a "tool" but it's a fun one at that.

You're right about letting games be developed in Tabletop, I'll try to mention that more in the review.